Programm 30C3

Vortrag: Sysadmins of the world, unite!

a call to resistance

Finally, the world is aware of the threat of mass surveillance and control, but we still have a fight on our hands, and that fight is both technical and political. Global democracy is not going to protect itself. There has never been a higher demand for a politically-engaged hackerdom. Jacob Appelbaum and Julian Assange discuss what needs to be done if we are going to win.

The first part of this talk will discuss the WHAT? and the WHY?: the historical challenge we face, and how we are called to resistance.

We are living in a defining historical moment. In recent years, the network has created an unprecedented capacity for parallel communication and action. This has changed the world. For decades hackers have known of the growth of a surveillance state at the heart of Western democracies. Now, everyone knows, and we are left with a single question, how do we stop this?

Hackers, sysadmins, developers and people of a technical persuasion are neither neutral parties nor spectators to this. We built the internet and we keep it running. We live there. We write the code. We manage the networks. Communications hegemony is impossible without the obedience of the people who build and run the system.

Our network has become the nervous system of the world.
We must wake up to this. We must realize the power and responsibility we hold for the great structural problems of our time. This year, Edward Snowden showed that we are not powerless. We all face a moral choice whether to collude or to resist. We say, resist! Sysadmins of the world, unite!

In the second half of this talk we will discuss the HOW?: the medium term and long term modes of action around which we must organize, if we are to see meaningful resistance against the global counterintelligence state, and meaningful progress towards emancipation.